Richard Alpert/Theories
Der Name *Sein Name bezieht sich auf Dr. Richard Alpert, der ein Kollege von Dr. Timothy Leary an der Harvard Universität war. Er und Leary wurde von der Uni geschmissen, weil sie an Psychopharmaka forschten. Dr. Richard Aplert reiste daraufhin nach Inden um mit Bhagavan Das Geisteswissenschaften zu studieren. Später traf er Neem Kalori Baba (oder Maharj-ji, wie er in der westlichen Welt bekannt ist), seinen neuen spirituellen Führer, der Alpert den Namen "Ram Dass" gab, zu deutsch "Diener Gottes". Dies spiegelt die Verbindungen zu Glauben und Religionen in Lost wieder. Dies könnte bedeuten, dass Richard in der Rangordnung vor Ben steht, und eine besondere Verbindung zu Gottes (in dem Fall Jacobs) hat. Sie stehen also nicht auf einer Stufe, wie es die die biblische Etymologie von Benjamin und Jacob vorschlägt. Allgemeines *Richard wasn't born on the island. He comes from a group of castaways that predates the arrival of the Dharma Initiative. His lack of aging may come from the fact that he ate nothing but the plants and animals on the island. The Others, the Dharma Initiative and the Oceanic 815 survivors often ate food not from the island. *He is in league with Mittelwerk; the company name Mittelos is very similar. **Not only is Mittlewerk/Mittleos very similar, but Richard Alpert looks very much like a younger Thomas Mittelwerk. *Personally engineered the bus accident which killed Edmund Burke. :*Reverse temporal engineering. Richard made sure it had already happened. :*One notices that other cars are honking at the bus as it was it waits for Burke to walk out onto the side walk. *Will attempt to take control of the Others along with Locke now that he knows the Island favors John, and not Ben. *He is able to bend time & space. That is how he can travel to and from the Island at will. This is why Ben asked him to go and get the man from Tallahasee and how Anthony Cooper magically appears on the Island. **Explains how he happened to be in the area of Juliette's sister so quickly when she has her violent outburst to Ben about her sister being dead already. *He is Magnus Hanso, captain of , grandfather of Alvar Hanso. If time on the Island is stopped compared to the outside world (theory from The Third Policeman) they could have been there since the shipwreck. When we see Richard Alpert in he appears to be wearing pirate type clothing. *He is part of the Black Rock but is not Hanso. He and some of the black rock crew found something that enabled them to grow old slowly or not at all. **He is Part of the Black Rock and helped lead the first purge against the natives. **He ceased to age after experiments performed on him by the DHARMA Initiative, thus causing he rift between the two groups **The clothes seem to be similar to what the Others were wearing when they originally appeared and wanted to look like they had no contact with the outside world. *He and the Hostiles are not natives or members of the original crew, as they are familiar with technology even before the attack to the Barracks and have probably run the DHARMA facilities after the Purge; they could be a faction of DHARMA scientists who split from the official group before Ben's arrival to the Island. Besides, their clothes are dirty and ruined, but not pirate or natural clothes: we see T-shirts, polo shirts and modern pants. *He seems to already follow Ben's orders during the gas attack to the Barracks (he seems a bit unconfortable, and waits for Ben's directions on what to do with Roger's body), so he possibly wasn't the leader of the Hostiles at that time: Ben could have conned the Hostiles during his growing-up and personally arranged the gas attack. **This seems to be confirmed by Lost: The Answers. **Not likely, the Hostiles were already attacking the Barracks since Ben's arrival, as we see when they attack while Ben's at science class. Also, it's much more probable that Richard asked Ben if he wanted the body to be brought back to the Barracks as a sign of respect, and not as a sign of submission. Thus being Ben's response of leaving the body out there (because he lacked respect for him), contrasting the closing of Goodspeed's eyes (as a sign of respect). ***He could feel that Ben is "special" just like he feels Locke is. *Richard believed that Ben was born on the Island because Ben claimed to see his mother, even though she was dead. *Richard is; or is a manifestation of "the monster" **When Richard met young Ben, Richard was not at all surprised that Ben had seen his dead mother on the island. It seems that "the monster" can take on the form of different people. Richard's lack of surprise could indicate that he at very least knows about the monster's abilities, and at most perhaps that Richard is the monster's true persona. ***Interesting idea, but it's possible that he knew that non-real people could appear on the island, but did not attribute it to the monster. *Richard is "the man behind the curtain"- he manipulates Ben by orchestrating Ben's supposed communication with Jacob. **This is supported by the fact that Ben meets him right after he crosses the boundary of the barracks for the first time, when he goes behind the "Sonic Curtain" if you will. In many mystical traditions, moving on to a higher level of spiritual achievement involves the "Parting of the Veil", where the Initiate is enlightened and thus removes from his or her eyes the veil that didn't allow them to see the true nature of reality clearly. When a young Ben meets Richard, it is his defacto initiation into the mysteries of the Hostiles and the Island. It is also a moment in which we the viewers are also suddenly enlightened as to how strong the Island's powers really and how Richard may be the key to a lot of the island's mysteries. *Conversely, Richard is Ben's early request from the magic box - a friendly non-Dharma person who rescues him from his hated Dharma life. This ties in to the theory that the magic box is similar to fictional ideas in books such as Sphere by Michael Crichton. *Alpert has formed an allegiance with either the Hanso Foundation or Naomi's "rescue" group during his off-island travels and is responsible for the events that take place during The Lost Experience, as is hinted at by the Mittelos/Mittelwerk link. *Richard Alpert could also be a reference to the literary archetype of the Wandering Jew/Wandering Stranger/Ageless Stranger, a man cursed by God with immortality for the way he treated Jesus at the Crucifiction. ("The Ageless Stranger" is one of Randall Flagg's nicknames in Stephen King's "The Stand" and other works connected to the Dark Tower Universe. At the end of King's uncut version of "The Stand", Randall Flagg awakens on an island whose inhabitants recognize his power and believe him to be a God. King never followed up on what happened between his island experience and when we next meet him in "The Dark Tower" series in any of his works) *Richard drove the bus that killed Edmund. *Richard must know that Ben wasn't born on the Island. Ben tells him the first time they meet that his mother is dead and that she died off-island. Unless Ben left and then returned to the Island, his mother must have died before Ben came, therefore Ben cannot have been on the Island his whole life. *Richard may also know a lot about Jacob - that not everyone can see him. When Ben returns from the cabin without Locke Richard asks, "Did Locke see..." before he is interupted. *We will never get the full story on Richard because Nestor Carbonell decided to do Cane instead of Lost. *Richard is immortal, due to the unique characteristics of the Island and suggested by his apparent lack of aging and ability to leave the Island at will, and he is the model for the bodyless statue. This may be revealed if we ever see him without socks. *Richard Alpert is the only Hostile, there never was someone else but him. There never was any need for other people cause he doesn't age so he didn't need to reproduce. He somehow co-existed with the Island until Dharma came. He would have been able to kill them off on his on, but he recognized that others living with him might not be the worst thing, it might even have some advantages. As he saw Ben he knew he was special and he decided that he and some other interesting people should come with him. What now happens is Others-History. *Richard has four toes on each foot. *He don't like Ben to be the leader of The Others. It was Alpert who send Harper to Juliet, because he knew that with Faraday dead, the gas will kill Ben. He is the secret on-island ally of Charles Widmore. Now when all Others who were loyal to Ben are dead (Tom, Mikhail etc.), he will turn rest of them against him. When his plan with gas went wrong, he has told to Widmore about Ben's biggest weakness - Alex. Widmore ordered Gault to capture her and Gault send Frank, Keamy and Omar to this mission. Juliet und Orangen Saft *He gave Juliet the spiked orange juice in order for her to be implanted. *He was able to tell Juliet the orange juice was spiked with tranquilizer because Juliet was especially selected for her submissive tendencies, not only for her brilliance in fertility. Alterung *He only ages when he is off-island, due to the time dilation effect (time moves more quickly in the outside world) *He was meant to appear much younger than he does with long hair. They had to use the same actor for the scene, so he was meant to appear younger. **Not likely at all. This is ABC's biggest show, they have a huge budget: definately enough for any visual effects they need, or a young actor that looks similar to Richard. Nothing is "meant" to be like anything. EVERYTHING YOU SEE IS INTENTIONAL. **Not likely, in the flashback he has his trademark five o'clock shadow. If they'd wanted him to look younger at LEAST they would have gotten rid of that! **Not likely, Richard and Ben are roughly the same age now, Ben is a little older, so when Ben was a child, Richard would have been an even younger child. ***Richard does not age faster or slower than anyone else. It is easily possible that they have around a ten year age gap between them, Ben being around 40 and Richard around 50, which could mean when Ben was young he was around 13, and Richard was around 23. While Richard didn't actually look 23 the show may have been trying to make him look this age as best as they could, so there is no mysterious aging to account for. ****This is highly unlikely; Richard's appearance to young Ben was obviously supposed to come as a shock to the audience, and now Ben is clearly older than Richard (in real life, actor Michael Emerson, who plays Ben, is 12 years older than Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard). ***** But it is a shock only because it's a known, but previously minor character who has suddenly taken on more importance. ****A concerted effort was made in making Roger Linus look a lot older during the purge. The Fact that Richard only gets a haircut is surely no mistake. *****This may be because the writers didn't come up with this direction for the character until long after he had been cast and used. ****There are 6 points that suggest that he is old and is not aging normally. There has not been one suggestion that he is aging, just theories of why he could look like hes not aging. 1. No apparent aging in the 3 times we saw him (just a haircut) 2. His odd clothing 3. His very old gun (Luger P-08, designed in the 1800's) 4. "It's a birthday present. You do remember birthdays don't you?" - Ben's comment to Richard 5. "no matter how much time you spend on the island, you never get tired of this view" - Richard to Locke on the hill. 6. "you're gonna be amazed at how time flies once you're there" - Richard to Juliet *The Richard who met Young Ben looks about fifteen years younger than the Richard of today (early 20s v. late 30s). There is some indication of aging, but about half as much as there should be (assuming 30 years has gone by since Richard met Ben). **All that is apparent is a haircut, not a wrinkle or a gray hair. *People on Island are actually aging faster then off-Island. Richard hasn't aged because he spent a lot of time off Island ( , ). **However, Walt was clearly older when Locke saw him in Through the Looking-Glass. **That's because people age in real life? The show has, after all, been running for 3 years – but only supposedly passed around 90 days on the island. ***Locke tells his group of Losties that a "taller" Walt appeared to him after being shot by Ben. If it was merely because the actor aged, they wouldn't have bothered making it seem so strange to everyone on the island who knew how old the character SHOULD be. *Richard Alpert is the son of the man who approached Ben. Nothing about the original island inhabitants has been told and it would explain the lack of any aging. **Except they are exactly identical. ***Given that there are firtility issues associated with the island, it does seem unlikly that Richard is the son of the man who approaced ben. Unless the Hostiles were using human cloning techniques to address this which would create identical father and son's *Richard is somehow "special" and the Island gives him eternal youth, that is, prevents him from aging. **Supports theory that he is Magnus Hanso. **Richard was a member of the Black Rock crew, but is not actually Magnus Hanso. Magnus Hanso has the Philosopher's Stone and shares it with those he deems worth. **Could be similar to how Locke was healed of his paralysis on the Island. **Being "special" might afford him a higher status in The Others than he actually has, especially when you consider he seemed to have a key role before The Purge. *People who are conceived and born on the Island do not age. He is a native of the Island, and was conceived there before the problems surrounding fertility surfaced. **If this were so, those conceived and born on the Island would be perpetual infants (such as Aaron), and Richard obviously is not. ***Perhaps they reach maturity and then stop aging at that point. **However, Richard may have been conceived on the island and also born there, whereas Aaron was conceived off the island. There is a noted difference between babies conceived on the island versus off. *Something that resembles an "Eternal Youth" is a gift for the inhabitants of the Island (the hostiles, for the Dharma Initiative), Black Rock's crew. **Or this eternal youth was discovered/granted before the Black Rock arrived at the island. **The DHARMA Initiative vaccine would allow you to continue to age normally - this is why all the DHARMA folks continued to age normally (like Ben and his father). If you stopped taking the vaccine, you stop aging. This is also why Claire was injected repeatedly with "vaccine"... to allow baby Aaron to grow and develop in utero until birth. Kind of makes you wonder if Aaron will grow any bigger without more vaccine. Also, was Alex, Rousseau's daughter, given vaccine by the Others after her capture, in order to grow to her current age? Are the others giving the "vaccine" to the other children to allow them to grow? *** This is unlikely since there were great pains taken to make Ben look younger in "The Man Behind the Curtain" on the day of The Purge (specifically, he has more hair). If the serum were Dharma-related and keeps people aging, I doubt Ben and any other Dharma survivors would have continued to inject it after the events of The Purge. *Richard is a time traveler. He leaps from time to time and from era to era. Thus he looks the same age whenever we meet him. :*Alternately, he is the proverbial Randall Flagg of the Lost mythos, an entity that takes on a human identity in order to bring chaos and destruction to the mortal realm. ::*In The Stand Nadine Cross asks Flagg what his real name is. He says "Call me Richard. That's my real name. Call me that." ::Though he needn't be a tool of chaos. He acts, potentially, in the interest of the island or an outside group. (ie it served his purposes to eliminate Dharma and to elevate Locke) ::In The Stand, Randall Flagg also helps people get out of situations they do not want to be in, thus rendering those people indebted to him. (Think of Ben and Juilet.) *The writers and producers of the show intentionally made Richard Alpert appear to be ageless. If the producers wanted to convey a time difference they simply could have used another character, such as Goodwin or Danny Pickett, etc. (who can be made to appear either older or younger) to meet young Ben in the jungle. *In an old interview (which can be viewed here), around the 7:40 minute mark the real Richard Alpert explains about how that which he thought to be himself 'died' during an LSD-trip. As we know, he later changed his name to Ram Dass, which would make (the name) Richard Alpert ageless. (In the same interview, he also talks about how there is no 'other', which of course has to do with the whole concept of how we percieve people we don't know or know nothing about as 'others'; a recurring theme in Lost.) *Richard does not age because he has similar regenerative abilities to Claire Bennett and Adam Monroe from Heroes. *Nobody ages on the island. It has been stated that the anagram the producers intended for Mittelos is "lost time". This is because Mittelos is part of the others' public face off the island, and when they are off the island they lose time from their lives because they age. Ben has spent considerably more time off the island than Richard, which is why he has a secret room full of passports and money. Or perhaps it is only the natives who do not age while on the island. *He is also time traveller and his constant is Ben 'Quelle: http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Richard_Alpert/Theories '